Pawel Kostka
By : Greg Goodale
Entrepreneurial drive enabled Pawel Kostka, 51, to develop his own consulting company in Denmark before returning home to head the Polish division of Danish consulting group COWI.
Kostka, who studied traffic engineering at Krakow Polytechnic, started his career working on highway design projects for the city's Town Planning Office (BRK) before becoming its project manager. A two-year trip to Tripoli, Libya in 1979 saw him try his hand at planning that city's transport system, which he described as a challenging experience of "extreme heat, minimal resources and tight deadlines." On his return home, he became Krakow's chief city planner and a lecturer at Krakow Polytechnic.
Due to the economic misery following martial law in the early 1980s, Kostka decided to make Denmark his new home. For 10 years he was a private stock trader until his friend, Grzegorz Tomaszewski, convinced him to put his knowledge of commerce and Poland to use. Kostka started consulting for Tomaszewski's food-flavoring company as it expanded into Poland and the experience prompted him to start his own consulting business advising Danish investors about Poland. His experience in the investment sector brought him into contact with COWI, which named him deputy managing director of its Polish division in April and initiated Kostka's return home after 16 years.
Past Notes:
1974 Graduated from Krakow Polytechnic's civil engineering department
1974 Began work as a planner at the Krakow Town Planning Office (BRK)
1979 Worked as chief planner for Polservice in Tripoli
1985 Moved to Denmark
1994 Started Poland Consult
2001 Moved to Poland as deputy manager of COWI Polska
A word of advice:
"Approaching work with faith, conviction and perseverance was what I was advised to do. But you have to keep that perseverance within the bounds of reason."
